Small boats – Page 310 – intheboatshed.net

Build the Flapdoodle folding dinghy

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David Brinker unfolds and rows his Flapdoodle folding dinghy Barquita

David Brinker’s post at the wonderful Duckworks ezine and website reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post something about the Flapdoodle folding dinghy, plans for which are available from designer Bill Weller’s website.

Folding boats have obvious attractions, particularly in terms of their convenience as tenders, and I was very struck recently that one or two appeared in the wonderful photos that Jeff Cole recently sent us of racing yachts of 100 years ago. If the owners of those 40ft-plus boats of long ago found them useful, smaller boat users can find them even more so – and so I thought I should draw intheboatshed.net readers’ attention to this one, which looks good to me.

But still I worry, just a little. Would I feel secure with a folding boat underneath me? Would my children or my partner? Will I ever be able to forget my anxieties and build one? Only time can tell, if I ever give it an opportunity.

Two dinghy classics from Ian Proctor’s drawing board – the Kestrel and the Osprey

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Ian Proctor’s Kestrel dinghy

Kestrel, the UK’s first all-glass reinforced plastic sailing dinghy

Kestrel

The 15ft 6in Kestrel was the UK’s first all-GRP sailing dinghy. The first plastic Kestrel appeared at the London Boat Show in 1956 and created a lot of favourable comment in the plastics magazines – but rather less in the yachting press, which could not quite trust the new material. However, when builders began to apply strict quality control, the boat became more popular.

Even today, the Kestrel is quite a quick boat – for racing purposes its Portsmouth Yardstick is a healthy 1038 – but Proctor designed her to be as suitable for cruising as for racing. As he pointed out, although the boat did not look like a racer at first glance, a number of subtle refinements including a sloping stem profile, deep hull, firm bilges and a long run enabled it to sail fast even in rough water.

The boat is still sailed and raced, and there is a Kestrel Class Association.